Reflections
by RobinxRaven writer
Summary: Lucina contemplates her friendship with Robin as she thinks to the future she is supposed to return to.


Even after the five years she'd spent in the past, Lucina found it difficult to relax in any place that didn't remind her of the future. Destroyed ruins, caves, towns and villages abandoned after attacks by bandits, Risen, or both; being around her father and serving in her father's army did little to dissuade the fact that the future was what she dreamed of every night, what she saw every time she closed her eyes, what her thoughts were drawn to in every idle moment, and though at first it had been difficult to accept, it would be where she returned to once the world was saved. She wasn't saving her future, she was preventing it from happening again, and then would return to her own time when her duty was done. As she looked out over the trees and across the landscape of tents and soldiers carrying on about their duties, Lucina sighed.

The bright sunlight and green trees were going to be fond memories, just as the memories from her childhood were, before the eternal thunderstorms and night had come and never left, replacing the land and people with emptiness and death. It was an ironic reversal: in the future, her thoughts and dreams were of a land filled with life, and now in the present she could only think of the destruction that lay ahead of her and her friends. Well, in all likelihood, it would end up as _just_ her. While she'd convinced her friends to come to the past and prevent Grima from rising, as time went on Lucina realized just how impossible of a task it was going to be separating all of them from the parents they'd lost as children and reunited with in adulthood. She understood their reluctance, having spent so much time with her mother and father, but she had sworn an oath to leave as little an impact on this time as possible, and the best way to make sure that happened was by removing herself from this time completely. It didn't help that many of her friends were coupling up and planning for a peaceful lifetime after Grima's defeat, either.

Inevitably, Lucina's thoughts turned towards romance as well, before she stopped and grimaced, then continued climbing the hill she was on. In the future the subject of romance was kept to stories about how their parents had come together, about trust built on the battlefield and bonds built off it, the awe at the latter and the muted sorrow that they would never have the chance at it. With every day being a struggle for survival, romance meant, at best, inevitable tragedy. And she and her friends had gone through enough tragedy as it was already, especially for her.

Thinking back, there had only ever been one time when her composure had broken and she'd acted on emotion: she'd sent Owain, Brady, and Yarne out on a scavenging mission to a nearby village on their way back to the capitol, and she'd given them up for dead when they'd failed to return a week after the agreed rendezvous date. When they'd returned with a horde of Risen on their tail, she'd been so overjoyed to see them alive that she'd give Brady what he'd later dubbed 'the backbreaker of all hugs'. When they'd reunited after jumping through time, he'd kept her at staff's length and warned her not to give him another, and that had been the only time her emotional reaction had been brought up.

The realization that she was one of the few remaining future children without a romantic interest should've been disheartening, but as Lucina looked up at the cloudy, orange sky, she didn't really feel anything at all. That in itself was probably a blessing in disguise. One less thing keeping her tied to this era. She'd gathered over time from family and friends that true relationships required time and effort devoted to them in order to be maintained, and as disheartening as it was to admit, it all came back to her devotion to the task of stopping Grima and saving the world. Putting aside everything she'd worked for to chase after fleeting desires would be foolish at best.

It wasn't like hovering around her father in an effort to figure out who his killer was left her a lot of free time to seek possible romances anyway.

Well, at first it hadn't. She spent so much time giving the evil eye to anyone who approached her father that Chrom was eventually forced to tell her to ease up or he'd assign her to cooking duties. _That_ had been embarrassing, and also reminiscent of being scolded as a child. She couldn't help but look back at the conversation and laugh a little, and be a little appreciative of the ordeal. After easing up, she'd come to enjoy much of the time she spent with the Shepherds. Seeing them training and working in person as an adult was incredibly cathartic after all the stories she'd heard as a child. It seemed they all had pieces of advice to offer her, whether as a warrior or as a friend. And without a doubt no friend was closer to her than the resident tactician.

Starting from her desire to make Robin understand why they must keep Chrom alive and bring an end to the war as soon as possible, to Robin asking her to look after herself for his peace of mind, she was leagues closer to him than anyone else, even some of her own time travelling companions. On some level that was definitely to be expected; after all, Robin spent nearly as much time with Chrom as she did, so a friendship was natural to develop between them, especially when they had a lot of varied things in common.

Initially, their conversations had been kept to topics of battle and the Valmese war. Supply lines, enemy movements, the units within their own army, strategies to win the next battle; all of these were topics she was familiar with and it meant that no awkward ice breaking was required. Aside from that, sparring together was a regular occurrence and fun challenge. Lucina found that Robin's fighting style was unpredictable and regularly kept her on her toes; in more than one mock battle she'd been bested by the sudden mix up of sword and magic. At some point, recovering with a nice meal together after training had become a regular occurrence, and then talks of upcoming battles had been abandoned by trips into towns to find simple pleasures for purchase; books, clothes, wood carvings, clay sculptures, paintings, jewelery and more had come back with them after many long shopping trips. And if they weren't close enough to a town to spend their free time in, they spent time together away from the camp. Just today she and Robin had talked about the differences in Valmese and Ylissean music while skipping stones across the nearby river before sitting in a field and looking at the clouds. Even though spending the day doing nothing meant she had a lot of energy to spare, it would make for a good memory.

Finding a rock to sit on, Lucina rested her chin on her hands. Not for the first time, she thought back to her past and wondered how different it might have been if Robin had been with her. He'd come to inhabit such a large part of her life as they'd grown closer that it was hard to imagine how things were going to be without him. Sure, strategizing and sparring and relaxing in available down time could all be done without him, but Lucina was aware now that she'd always felt different talking to the others from her time. But with Robin, she didn't feel like the abdicated Exalt, or the future witness or the warrior trying to save the world, she just felt like herself. _"Whoever that may be."_ She thought with a shake of her head.

"Hello, Lucina."

Snapping out of her thoughts and turning as she stood, a smile came automatically. "Robin? Fancy meeting you here."

If he noticed her rare attempt at a joke, he didn't say anything. "Actually, I followed you. I, er...wanted to give you these." He took his hands out behind his back, and Lucina gasped.

"Oh, Robin! Did you pick flowers for me?" The bright mix of orange and yellows caught her eye and for a moment she just stood and looked at them, before taking them from his hands and lifting them to her face. "They're absolutely beautiful, and they smell heavenly!"

"...I'm glad you like them." He said with a relieved and genuine smile.

"We have no flowers in my world. The whole land is barren." She winced and shook her head, lowering the flowers and looking back up with a questioning smile.

"...But enough of that. Tell me, Robin, what are we celebrating?"


End file.
